Social workers: does class matter

In the social work literature, class issues have been described within the context of persons who are currently poor and or poor working class. However, this literature is silent on class issues relating to the experience of poverty. This was particularly evident with regard to women who grew up in poor, working class homes and chose social work as a profession, which was my research interest. This descriptive phenomenological study using a feminist epistemology explores the lived experience of five social workers who grew up in poor, working class homes. Descriptive information was generated through face to face audio taped interviews. All of the women held either a Masters or Bachelor of Social Work degree and worked and lived in northern British Columbia. From the analysis of the descriptive data, six significant themes were identified: women social workers from poor, working class backgrounds learned how to fit into the middle class by being very good observers of behaviour; they felt a sense of alienation from family and friends because of their current class position; conversely, they still did not feel that they belonged to the middle class; they did not quite believe that they deserved what they have accomplished; they felt that they have had to work extra hard to achieve their current status; and they recognized at least one person as a significant role model who influenced their lives. This study did not generalize to all social workers who grew up in poor, working class backgrounds. However, it did give voice to the experiences of the women in this study and may resonate for other women who have shared the experience of crossing class borders.